


Artistic Differences - Trolls Human/Art School AU

by UKthewhitewolf



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Art School, Alternate Universe - Human, Anxiety, Depression, F/M, Human AU, Kinda?, Only the loosest definition of plot, Probably fluff and angst in equal measure, Slow Burn, Someone help these idiots honestly, Swearing, all that fun stuff, art school au, loads of swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12927657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UKthewhitewolf/pseuds/UKthewhitewolf
Summary: Obligatory Art school/Human AU. Don't expect this to follow the movie really... at all...... It's more like cherry-picking pieces of plot from wherever.





	Artistic Differences - Trolls Human/Art School AU

This year was going to be perfect. Poppy had decided it would be and would do anything to make sure it was true, and it was so close to being true! She and all her friends had long ago received their acceptance letters into the Bergen Town Art-Tech college and been planning their whole time there thoroughly, they'd even found the perfect place to stay - what was technically a dorm but a lot smaller, kind of like an apartment building instead? She didn't actually know. It was repurposed from whatever it was into student accommodation. What it was NOW was perfect, there was only one problem at all with it. For them to get it, they needed 10 people for the group to be accepted for it and they had only 9.  
She understood the restriction, with so many students all looking for perfect places to stay for the duration of their courses they had to be strict about it, but that didn't make it any less nerve-wracking on her mission to get number 10 added to their group.  
  
Finding him wasn't too difficult, Branch was a creature of habit and if he wasn't hiding in his apartment he'd either be at the coffee shop or the park. Today he was at the coffee shop. In the usual dark corner he shoved himself into to stay away from anyone else in there, which was just fine with everyone in Troll Town because no one liked trying to talk to Branch. He was always so grumpy and rude that he chased off anyone attempting conversation with him. That never put off Poppy though, not even when he groaned aloud as she skipped over to him.  
  
"Go away Poppy." He didn't look at her, keeping himself glaring out of the window.  
  
"Hi Branch!" She sing-songed her greeting, falling down into the seat opposite him. "So. You got housing for college?"  
  
Branch sighed. When Poppy made herself comfortable it meant this wasn't a quick greeting in passing and she actually wanted something. He turned to look at her, all smiles and bright pink, as usual.  
  
"I said go away."  
  
"Pfft I know, I also know you don't have housing, SO-"  
  
"Wait wait, how do you know that?"  
  
"Branch, it costs too much to get a place solo and there's no way you're gonna be sharing with a stranger, don't take a rocket scientist bud!" she winked at him, causing him to roll his eyes and return his gaze to looking out of the window, "SOOO - I have good news! You can room with us!"   
Poppy swung her arms out wide as she made her grand announcement.  
  
Branch scoffed, "No."  
  
"C'mon Branch! What else are you gonna do?"  
  
That had him stumped. He didn't actually know. But he could not let on to Poppy that he was clueless, if she saw an opening she'd leap on it. "There's plenty of people offering up cheap rooms Poppy."  
  
Poppy laughed. Shit.   
  
"Yeahhhh we both know you're not gonna do that."  
  
"Well I'm not gonna room with you lot either, I'd rather sleep on a park bench."  
  
"Look."   
Poppy laid out an invitation on the table in front of him. Of course she'd made an invitation. In true Poppy fashion it was brightly coloured, covered in glitter and had bits that popped up all over the place. Branch glared at it, wary that it would start spraying glitter all over the place as Poppy's invitations had done several times in the past.  
  
"It's not like a huge dorm building, it's a smaller one. The rooms are a pretty good size! They've even got like a weird little breakfast bar kinda place in them! We need 10 people to be accepted and we have 9, 2 to a room. There's the twins, obviously. DJ and Biggie. Cooper and Smidge. Guy and Creek. Then me and you!"   
Poppy had been counting everyone down using her fingers, causing Branch to momentarily forget how to speak as she grinned at him upon revealing he'd be hypothetically rooming with her.  
  
"You want me to stay in the same room as you!? No thanks Poppy, I don't need that kind of headache."   
  
"Hear me out! There's a sleeping area in like the main room but they have a smaller private room, you could have that one!" Branch was staring at her with disbelief, occasionally trying to interject, but Poppy just kept going, "Sure there's a bit less room but you'd have it all to yourself, I promise I would never go in your room, and I won't be having any parties in there! That's what the common room is for! We can have any parties there so you'll be left in peace! I'll make sure none of the others come in our room and they all have locks on the front doors anyways and only the 2 of us would have a key! I promise it'll be great Branch!"  
  
"Poppy!" Branch finally managed to bring her to a halt when she paused for a breath. She was sitting there practically bouncing in her seat with the sheer level of enthusiasm and excitement she had going on. All Branch could do was stare at her for a minute, if it was anyone but Poppy he'd assume this was some stupid prank.  
  
"You're really serious about this." It was less of a question and more a statement of fact he happened to voice out loud, but Poppy answered anyway.  
  
"Yep!" She beamed at him, "So whaddya say Branch?"  
  
Standing up Branch crumpled the invitation up in his hand, making sure Poppy saw how NOT impressed he was with it, before stuffing the balled up paper in his backpack.   
  
"Whatever, I'm going home for some peace and quiet, do not follow me."  
  
And with that he turned on his heel and stormed out. Anyone else in Troll Town would probably have taken that as another rude brush-off from Branch and left disappointed, but Poppy knew better. She grinned to herself in absolute triumph, Branch had not said no. Okay he had said no, but when Branch really, really meant no about something he'd make sure she knew about it. The number of times he'd yelled at her about how stupid her idea was and that he'd not be caught dead anywhere in the vicinity of whatever she'd planned she'd lost count of, resignation and being ignored by Branch was as good of a 'Yes' as she was likely to get from him for the time being. She'd text him later to confirm, but right now she had to go inform the landlord that they had 10 people.  
  


* * *

  
Branch threw his backpack to the floor and collapsed back onto his couch with a sigh. This town really did suck. Sure it had its charms, and he'd liked it well enough as a kid, but nowadays the perpetually happy and optimistic nature of Troll Town ground on his nerves every single second of the day. Would it kill everyone to just not be so loud about everything for once?  
At least in the dullness of his apartment he could cut it off for a bit. That was how it was supposed to work anyway, but his eye caught the telltale evidence that his earlier conversation had not been a weird feverdream, spots of glitter on his jeans and bag.   
Great.   
Thanks Poppy.  
He fished out the scrunched up invitation and went about his usual ritual of undoing the damage he'd done to it. Straightening up the creases and tears as best he could, annoyance at the volume of glitter temporarily pushed to the back of his mind.  
He had no idea why he did this every single time, he should just throw it in the bin and be done with it, but no. This invitation would end up with all the others, stuffed into a box and hidden away, only to see the light of day again on those odd days he felt the need to pull them out and stare at them again. He was truly pathetic.  
Hastily scribbled inside the card was a rendition of a floor plan, with a grumpy face inside what must be the smaller room Poppy had described, and a smiley face in the open-plan main room with pink glitter glued all over it. There was also what looked like a shower symbol in another 'room' that was hard to define under the blue glitter glued over that part. Bathroom, fair enough.  
Poppy was ridiculous. Everyone else in town had just accepted that he wanted to be left alone and taken to ignoring him, saving their comments to whisper to each other when he wasn't anywhere near them. Honestly Branch thought he'd done a pretty good job of convincing everyone in this stupid town to stay away from him, but it never worked on Poppy.  
Out of everyone here, they had known each other the longest. Properly known each other, everyone in Troll Town knew everyone else in some way or another, which was a constant source of irritation to Branch, but he'd known Poppy since they'd been babies. Certainly the longest of everyone in the Snack Pack, which he no longer counted himself a member of.  
  
Branch sighed and flopped onto his back, laying across the whole couch now.  
Accepting Poppy's invitation was a bad idea. A really, horribly, awful idea. Not least that if he finally accepted an invitation now he'd have to start all over again in declining every single one. Rooming with Poppy would be a nightmare. She had no concept of quiet time. And having the rest of the entire Snack Pack in the same building? It was a recipe for disaster.  
There really wasn't much of a better option though. Branch maintained that Poppy was often completely wrong about a lot of things, but she wasn't wrong about him absolutely not rooming with a stranger or renting a room out of someone else's place. He needed his space, and having other people in it was just not a thing that Branch was capable of coping with.  
There was no way this was going to end well.  
  
His phone buzzed, as if on cue, with a new text from Poppy.  
  
' _sooooo whatcha say branch?? ur gonna be my future roommate right?? ;)_ '  
  
Don't answer. Just don't send a reply. They'd all be leaving in a few days anyway, and he could live without college. Other people did it. Maybe he could just up and leave, live under a bridge somewhere and never see or hear from Poppy or anyone else ever again.  
  
' _ok sure_ '  
  
DAMN IT.  
  
' _yaaaaaay!! :)))  it'll be fun u will see!!_ '  
  
Well. That was it. Branch's fate was sealed. One more bad decision to add to the growing list.

**Author's Note:**

> Baby's first multi-chapter fic c':  
> I'm gonna apologize in advance. I have no idea if this is gonna work and as such no idea how far I'll get with it. Honestly kind of scared to even upload it but it'll annoy me sitting in my files on it's own so here we are.


End file.
